I was able to successfully install Sabayon 19.03, but I had some trouble on the way. (I've installed many different OS's over the years.) Maybe this will help someone else. By the way, my hardware is about 2 years old. My video card is GeForce GT710.

First I downloaded the iso file from the website, and then used dd to make a USB stick.

1. The first installation went fine. Then using the Sabayon Wiki page (En:Introduction) I proceeded to update/upgrade the system. This did not work as stated in the Wiki; when I entered the command

the whole upgrade started without letting me first update Entropy. After this was done I went through the other commands in this part of the Wiki, and then rebooted. Then I got the black screen and cursor, so I followed the instructions on the "Known Issues" page. The command

returned zero entries. I was not able to install the nvidia driver per the instructions; the lines of text rolled by so fast that I couldn't follow, but the last visible lines said something about the files not available on the server. After a while I quit to try reinstalling.

2. The second installation brought up the black screen with cursor before I could reach the desktop. Since I am using WiFi to connect, there was no way to get anything done. So I tried again.

3. The third installation went like the first. After rebooting of course the black screen came back. As in the first case I followed the "Known Issues" instructions. Seeing that there was somehow no nvidia driver installed, I tried

I find this confusing, seeing that the "Known Issues" page says that the nvidia drivers will be installed by default. Anyway it's working, and I guess I'll stick with the nouveau drivers until I get more comfortable with Sabayon.